Thursday, October 07, 2004

SevenSeek and Bluefind. Here are two web directories I do not recommend. They charge for listings. This is fine if you see web directories as a means of advertising but if you think these sort of sites should exist to help searchers find the best information then it is pretty bad. It is quite simple how this works. Those trying to make money on the Web will pay for a listing. Those promoting free sites will not pay and will not even know in many cases they need to "promote" a site. Hence, these directories become overtly commercial and are of no real use for those trying to find free information.

What is unfortunate is that Google has awarded these two sites an inordinately high PageRank. (If you have the Google Toolbar you can see this.) This means that links from these sites actually help in getting ranked higher in the Google search results. This then tilts Google towards commercial sites. Google should downgrade the PR of these two sites. A link here only means someone is willing to buy an ad.